The SILCC (SImulating the LifeCycle of molecular Clouds) project: I. Chemical evolution of the supernova-driven ISM

Understand

The SILCC project (SImulating the Life-Cycle of molecular Clouds) aims at a more self-consistent understanding of the interstellar medium (ISM) on small scales and its link to galaxy evolution.

• We simulate the evolution of the multi-phase ISM in a 500 pc x 500 pc x 10 kpc region of a galactic disc, with a gas surface density of $\Sigma_{_{\rm GAS}} = 10 \;{\rm M}_\odot/{\rm pc}^2$.
• The Flash 4.1 simulations include an external potential, self-gravity, magnetic fields, heating and radiative cooling, time-dependent chemistry of H$_2$ and CO considering (self-) shielding, and supernova (SN) feedback.
• We explore SN explosions at different (fixed) rates in high-density regions (peak), in random locations (random), in a combination of both (mixed), or clustered in space and time (clustered).